Assemblyman Miller to Seek Kim’s House Seat

Assemblyman Gary Miller of Diamond Bar said he will run next year against Rep. Jay Kim, a three-term Republican congressman who vowed to seek reelection despite pleading guilty to election law violations.

Miller, also a Republican, made his announcement about running for the 41st Congressional District seat at his fund-raising dinner this week.

P.J. O’Neil, a Kim spokesman, said the congressman was not worried by the challenge, which had been widely anticipated.

Kim pleaded guilty to three misdemeanors in July after a four-year FBI investigation of his campaigns. He and his wife, June, who pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors, are scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 14 by a federal judge in Los Angeles.

Under a plea agreement, they face up to six months in federal detention for accepting illegal campaign contributions dating from Kim’s runs for Congress in 1992 and 1994.

The lawmaker’s campaign treasurer, Seokuk Ma, was sentenced earlier this month to five years’ probation, fined $12,000 and ordered to perform 2,500 of hours of community service for misdemeanor fund-raising violations.

No Democrats have officially announced their candidacy for the seat, which is considered a Republican stronghold despite the district’s Democratic edge in registration.

Miller, a developer, was elected to the inaugural Diamond Bar City Council along with Kim in 1989 after the community incorporated.